docs: def get_config(config_file):
      """Get the configuration from a file.
  
      @param config_file: the configuration file
      @return: the configuration
      @rtype: dict
  
      """
      config = {}
      tobool = lambda s: True if s.lower() == 'true' else False
      if config_file:
          try:
              f = open(config_file, 'r')
          except:
              print ("Unable to open configuration file '{0}'".format(config_file))
          else:
              for line in f.readlines():
                  if len(line.strip()):
                      key, value = line.split("=", 1)
                      key, value = key.strip(), value.strip()
                      if key in ['init2class', 'first_line', 'convert_only']:
                          value = tobool(value)
                      config[key] = value
      return config